September 27, 2018
City News Service
The Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners today approved a program that would create an option for renters to buy electricity from solar panels installed around the city.
Previously, solar energy was available mostly to residents of single-family homes. The Shared Solar Pilot Program unanimously approved by the board would be available to 13,000 customers, with the ability to scale up the program if it is successful.
The program, which still needs approval of the City Council, would have the LADWP install large-scale photovoltaic solar plants in and near the L.A. basin, and allow customers with accounts associated with multifamily dwelling units to sign up to buy for blocks of energy. The program would allow them to replace a portion of their electrical energy use at a fixed rate for the life of the program — 10 years — which should make it easier to manage electrical costs, according to an LADWP report.
The program would include no upfront costs or cancellation fees for customers, and cost the LADWP an estimated $79 million over 20 years. The costs of the program are expected to be recovered by the revenue generated by customers and will help the LADWP meet its goal of getting 55 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2025, according to the report.
LADWP plans to introduce the Shared Solar Pilot Program in 2019.
A long line of environmental activists and other supporters of solar energy spoke in favor of the program at the meeting.
“We know that many of the customers locked out of the solar market are low-income communities of color who experience the impacts of climate change and pollution,” Jorge Madrid with the Environmental Defense Fund said.
September 20, 2018
By Jennifer Bihm
Contributing Writer
Educator and Watts Towers Arts Director Rosie Lee Hooks was found not guilty of insubordination after a July 31 hearing, but guilty of not adhering to the public art approval process to paint a mural of Watts native and jazz legend Charles Mingus. Her supporters are questioning that decision, they said, citing “substantial documentation proving that Ms. Hooks was unaware of this process, contradicting Community Arts Director Leslie Thomas’ testimony.” A final hearing was held September 13 on Hooks’ appeal of a three week suspension by the Department of Cultural Affairs, that resulted from the charges.
“Mr. Thomas admitted that he had approved Ms. Hooks’ vacation for the month of May, 2016, but insisted that she was definitely in attendance at the May 5, 2016, meeting where she was informed of the Public Arts Ordinance approval process,” said Friends of the Watts Towers members, via a statement released to the press, earlier this month.
However, they pointed out, Hooks’ attorney, Adam Stern submitted a passport showing that the very time she was claimed to have been attending a meeting, she was actually en route to South Africa. Hooks has had a strong backing since the suspension in April. Many of her supporters believe the suspension was less disciplinary than vindictive, they said, since Hooks has been a long time advocate of the Watts community.
Watts has long held a reputation as a low income, high crime area. Hooks supporters, some who are considered community leaders said that fact plays a huge role in their share of city resources.
“For years, the community groups have asked the city for appropriate resources to support our vision, getting very little in response from the Cultural Affairs Department, the Mayor’s Office or the 15th Council District, and they have never shared with us their own long-range plans for the campus or the Watts community,” said Friends.
But advocates like Hooks, who has also served as Director of Festivals for the City’s Cultural Affairs Department and produced the first Central Avenue Jazz Festival, are working hard to overcome that reputation. Emphasizing the neighborhood’s most famous landmark, the Watts Towers has been part of that strategy. The sculpture has attracted many artists and professionals to the area.
“I Build the Tower”, a feature-length documentary film about the Watts Towers and their creator, Simon Rodia, provides a history of Watts from the 1920s to the present and a record of the activities of the Watts Towers Arts Center.
“Hooks brings a vast array of experience and talent to the Watts Towers Arts Center Campus,” according to her bio on wattstowers.org.
Hooks began her career as an actor and singer about 35 years ago in Washington D.C.
A founding member of The Black Ensemble Theatre Center (TBET) at LATC (Los Angeles Theatre Center), Hooks has toured the U.S. and Europe with the Mark Taper Forum. She continues to act in film, television and on stage and is a three-time nominee and is the recipient of two NAACP “Image Awards.” she is also former member of the renowned singing ensemble, “Sweet Honey In The Rock.”
“We offer any assistance the Watts community needs to end the blatant harassment of an adored arts educator,” said Labor Representative Geoffrey Garfield of Hooks’ union, Engineers & Architects Association.
September 13, 2018
City News Service
The parent company of several Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles restaurants emerged from bankruptcy this week when a Los Angeles judge confirmed a modified confirmation plan to repay creditors, it was announced today.
No further substantive court hearings are anticipated in the case.
East Coast Foods Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2016. The filing came months after the company was ordered to pay $3.2 million to a former employee who won a wrongful termination and discrimination lawsuit against the soul food chain.
In filings with U.S. Bankruptcy Court, East Coast Foods estimated that it had debts between $10 million and $50 million with assets of less than $50,000.
A 363-page plan filed earlier this year outlined the restaurant chain's plan to emerge from bankruptcy.
There are seven Roscoes locations in the Southland – in Hollywood, Long Beach, Pasadena, West Los Angeles, Inglewood, Los Angeles and Anaheim. Plans to open a San Diego branch were put on hold last year.
September 06, 2018
City News Service
Legislation that would streamline the state environmental review process for the proposed Los Angeles Clippers arena in Inglewood is on its way to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk after winning unanimous approval from the state Senate and passing in the Assembly, 68-4.
Both votes occurred Friday as the state Legislature sprinted to complete its work as the 2017-2018 session came to a close.
Clippers management, which is eager to build a new arena for its team and move from its current hub at Staples Center, hailed the Legislative approvals even though it remains unclear whether the governor will sign the bill into law.
“We are now one step closer to bringing the world’s best basketball arena to a community that deserves the best,” Clippers owner Steve Ballmer said in a statement late Friday. “... with the passage of this bill, we are proudly setting a new standard for environmental responsibility. AB 987 puts into writing the promise we've made to Inglewood from the start: to be exceptional neighbors who care passionately about the Inglewood community and its citizens.”
The bill was introduced in June by Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), who told the Orange County Register that fast-tracking the required environmental review for the proposed arena under the California Environmental Quality Act would not mean the project would have lax environmental standards.
“It’s not a CEQA exemption,” Kamlager-Dove told the Register. “It’s streamlining some of the litigation opportunities. Oftentimes, there are challenges that will force a project to get stalled in court for years and years as a way to kill it, and this is streamlining some elements of that. There will be a full and complete (environmental impact review) done. No shortcuts.”
Without the legislation, work on an environmental impact statement for the project would be expected to take up to 18 months, possibly longer if opponents pursue legal challenges.
The legislation puts roadblocks in place to all but eliminate options for legal complications.
The approval comes amid continued opposition to the project by some Inglewood housing advocates and their supporters who are concerned the proposed basketball arena, which would stretch along a swath of Century Boulevard, in addition to a nearby football stadium that is already under construction is slated to be the future home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers football teams, will raise rents and housing prices out of reach for many longtime residents.
Just weeks after Kamlager-Dover introduced the environmental legislation, a group calling itself Uplift Inglewood, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court accusing city officials of failing to prioritize some of its prime land resources for subsidized housing and asking a judge to strike down a negotiating agreement between Inglewood and the Clippers in favor of the state's Surplus Land Act.
The project proposal calls for a privately funded complex that would include an 18,000-seat arena, practice facilities, a sports medicine clinic, team offices and retail space under the title Inglewood Basketball and Entertainment Center. Plans for the complex are continuing under a 36-month exclusive negotiating agreement the team's owners paid for with a $1.5 million nonrefundable deposit.
The team's lease at Staples Center expires in 2024.